Taking stock of what we have here in the urban homestead’s pantry for our next co-op order, a recent comment from a friend got me thinking. Been doing a lot of that lately, especially when it comes to our food staples that we don’t grow. Now, I am all for choices but sometimes I think Ma Ingalls had it, well, “easier.”
If you’ve seen our short Homegrown Revolution film (now available on DVD – purchase your copy here) where I say that we are “directly and indirectly self sufficient” from our little 1/10 plot here in the city.
BTW, the HGR film is NOT the same one that’s on YouTube (view here) which has over 318,000 [...]
Not very well, I am afraid.
“These are the top 10 items sold at grocery stores for the 52 weeks ending June 14, 2009. They are ranked by dollar sales.
1. Carbonated beverages
2. Milk
3. Fresh bread and rolls
4. Beer/Ale/Hard cider
5. Salty snacks
6. Natural cheese
7. Frozen dinners/entrees
8. Cold cereal
9. Wine
10. Cigarettes
Via GROCERY – Bitten Blog – NYTimes.com
Question: I [...]
Over the years we’ve made, remade and tweaked our basic “grocery list” of things we can’t grow here on the urban homestead and for the most part we pretty much stick to the list week after week, month after month. When I say “stick to the list” we don’t buy outside the list which helps [...]
Have you noticed this slight of packaging, incredible shrinking phenomenon?
How are you dealing with increase in food prices? How are you fighting back by letting retailers know that “we don’t need no stinkin’ packages!”
Here are our ‘Seven Keys’ to saving money. Care to add?
Grow your own
Buy local and in season
Look for bulk goods and [...]
We urban homesteaders find that making a list and sticking to it helps with the overall running and operation of the urban homestead.
How we went about determining our monthly grocery list is to see what “staples” we commonly use throughout the month and made up a “basic shopping list” that we tack prominently on [...]
Jim, the truck driver unloads the supplies.
Under a sweltering sun in a parking lot in front of the Rose Bowl, me (left – in the homemade crohet hippie hat ) and fellow co-opers wait for the rest of our orders
On the pick up list this month for us urban homesteaders are:
100 lbs [...]
As the days get longer our grocery bill gets shorter as our plates are full with more and more homegrown produce (which is certainly a blessing!)
BTW, for those interested in our Grow for 10K Challenge, our total tally from Jan-May stands at 1,614 pounds.
This week will be harvesting “heavy weight crops” – potatoes and turnips [...]
Jordanne and goats waiting for the truck, truck arrives
Yesterday was certainly a busy day for us urban homesteaders. We had a camera crew filming all day, following us around and sitting us down for personal interviews. Other than filming, PTF also had an exploratory meeting with some folks at city hall. And then there was [...]
Do you have health insurance? – Stacey
No. This choice/ decision of becoming less dependent on the system is not for everyone.
What is the best insulation to put in an attic? And by losing the dishwasher could we save alot more money on power etc? Talithia
Many years back (20 years ago) the city of Pasadena had [...]
Sustainable LA
TheSilver Lake Film Festival Sustainable LA Shorts Program will feature 14 short films – PTF being one of them.
Growing the Future
PTF readercontributes $10.00 – thank you GM for your continued support.
Food Budget
In the inbox the other day came thePenny-Wise Eat Local Challenge from April 23 to April 29 to stick to the budget [...]
Some of our bulk supplies
This past Friday we made our trip to TJ’s for our “3-weeker” shopping trip–meaning we shop at the store every 3 rd Friday. We stock up on such grocery items like butter, nuts, onions, cheeses, mayo (chocolate!) and so forth. The rest of our staples (rice, dried beans, oats, TP, etc) [...]
Grateful
To EB for his continued support of our site. We are touched and humbled by your gift.
Roof Report
The roofing guys are back again this morning; however with a chance of rain on Wednesday they may have to skip a day and resume work on Thursday.
Busy
Yesterday, with the help of a friend, we spent the [...]
Sorry for the late of postings, it’s been busy here on the homestead. Well, that’s nothing new, I suppose. Weather’s hot, back to typical August weather.
Day of Rest & Reflection and Forward Thinking
Saturday, we spent a quiet and relaxing day with a friend as we hiked in the local mountains. We walked up to our [...]
It’s been recently proposed that the animal enclosure be expanded to possibly make room for a dwarf goat. Jules is busy sketching out ideas for a new feeding stations for the chickens, ducks and bunny. Jordanne is busy thinking about ways to improve the duck and chicken house and looking forward to hatching some [...]
Film crew
Sunday was a busy day! It ended up that the folks filming ‘Escape from Suburbia‘ didn’t show as expected. It was for the better, since we had our hands full with another film crew from USC taping the documentary ‘Ready or Not‘ ( premiers sometime in May). Even though it was a long and [...]
Designing a new backyard garden
Now that there’s more space since the concrete’s been removed, now what? Just kidding, there’s been some progress, we’ve added three new raised beds to finish off the raised bed garden area (shown in upper left corner of photos).
For the remaining newly open ground it will be more of a sunken [...]
Food from co-op & recent garden harvest
With the recent bulk order from the co-op, we are set for a few months with the necessary staples and with the unseasonably warm temps the garden is still going strong.
Butterfly comes to town
Tuesday, we spent the evening at LA City College with concerned people from the community and [...]
Thanks for the warm ‘welcome home.’ It’s good to be back.
The story and many pics of our New Orleans trip are coming, it may take awhile since there’s a lot to tell (stay tuned).
In the meantime newsbytes from the homestead:
Veggie/fruit tales
Lots to do! Loads of veggies needed to be harvested, Justin harvested 18 pounds of [...]
We just joined a local co-op which orders through Azure Standard; a bulk health foods company that is dedicated to providing as many organic products as possible,(Thanks to Jennifer for the heads-up!)
Their delivery destination is the Rose Bowl which is less than a mile from the homestead (even better is that this means no shipping [...]
HAUTE TIME
We harvested the first ears of sweet corn yesterday and enjoyed them with the evening meal of cucumber- tomato salad, steamed beans over couscous. It was a delight that we were craving for some time.
With all the fresh produce, it means our grocery bill is cut considerably! The money saved can be used [...]
Another gorgeous day here in So. Cal!
Thankfully, even though the temps do get a bit cold, we are able to fend off the chill with a space heater (but it’s not really needed until sometime in January). Unfortunately, it only warms our tootsies in the room that it’s in. So, to keep warm in other [...]
2 heads are better than 1
Finally got around to uploading somenew duck pics. They have certainly grown and are really sweet!
As we look into the possibilities of alternative fuels such asSVO (simple vegetable oil) andbiodiesel, I came across this site calledDrive 55 Conservation Project. Not only is driving fast dangerous but it also is more [...]
Whoops, actually our limey green Volkswagen Van. Just fantasizing a Little House On The Prairie scenario…
We successfully “survived” our 6 week grocery shopping experiment… Is it possible that can we go for 8 weeks now?
We have been buying almost everything we can in bulk (25-50lbs). For example:
Raisins
Nuts – peanut, sunflower
Honey
Flour
Oats
Rice
Dried beans – pinto, [...]
Baby apricots
“We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order togrow.” ~ Anonymous ~
We got some (two) new composters from the city on Friday, they are offering them at reduced prices ($27 compared to $80 in some garden catalog). We are trying to faze out using the large compost pile [...]
